The perl binary has multiple ways in which it can be built. The simplest (and original) model just defines PL_stack_sp directly as a global variable. But when built with MULTIPLICITY (when for example building a threaded perl), then multiple interpreters are allowed, and (within the core), PL_stack_sp is defined as my_perl->Ispack_sp.

However in XS code (rather than in the core), it's more complex. At one point PL_stack_sp was defined as a function call, which would shield the XS code from changes in the interpreter struct layout across differing perl versions - so XS modules wouldn't have be to recompiled for each new perl release. However, this slowed XS code down a lot, and there were other things which also broke binary compatibility, so that was ditched and we just changed the binary guarantee to apply only across minor releases.

Dave.